Wiping Out Tent City
by Queequg471
Summary: Every artist needs inspirations. The Glee club is visited by the originals, courtesy of one Sue Sylvester. RENT-crossover
1. Leave Your Concience At The Tone

**A/N: Otayyy...pre-fic warnings. **

**Um...I'm a total Renthead. I LOVE it, listen to the songs almost pathologically, and they are constantly stuck in my head. **

**And while I still watch Glee and most often enjoy it, I find it's gotten really preachy recently, and not nearly as genuine as it used to be. I am also nowhere near Will Schuester's biggest fan, but worry not, I won't turn this entire A/N into a rant. Hopefully, no Glee fans are offended by this, but if you are, just click that back button. If not, enjoy!**

**Just to clarify, this is WAYY AU, because for the purposes of this story, Rent and its characters are real people, who have had a musical made about their lives. And Angel is not dead, because really, who wants Angel to be dead?**

**Disclaimer: Don't own them, but a girl can dream. **

"Rent?" cried Rachel Berry, throwing the sheet music in front of her down in disgust.

"Yes, _Rent_," said Will Schuester, picking it up and calmly handing it back to Rachel. "It speaks to a different demographic, it's applicable now yet works perfectly in its time frame, and the songs are still popular today."

"Like that one about the 560,000 minutes?" asked Finn, earning one of Santana's classic scoffs.

Will laughed lightly, but gave an agreeing nod.

"Seasons of Love, which is the song I believe you are referring to, Finn, is one of, if not the most famous song of the musical. In fact, there are many that know it word-for-word, but don't even know its musical of origin. _Rent_ is filled with amazing songs of all types, and this week, we're going to nail down some of them. Get up, let's go!"

An hour later, Will stood back and beckoned Brad, the piano player, over to accompany the teens. As an opening number, he had picked Seasons of Love because most of the teens were familiar with it already, and he hoped to move up to La Vie Boheme before the week's end.

He had delivered his usual inspiring speech (those did seem to be frequent nowadays, didn't they?) and dismissed Glee for the day, confident the students would know the sheet music by the next day's rehearsal.

Giving the parts turned out to be somewhat of a challenge. For how well they knew Seasons of Love, the students knew very little about the show's actual stars. All stars were in the two songs selected, and most had solos in La Vie Boheme, but Will had grown so accustomed to who would sings leads and who would do backup, that he had cast Quinn as Mimi, Puck as Roger, Finn as Mark, Matt as Collins (had to find out sooner or later what he could do), Kurt as Angel, Brittany as Maureen and Santana as Joanne. That, however, meant that the two solos in Seasons of Love would go to Santana and Matt. Will wasn't worried about Santana's part, but Matt was still an unproven singer, preferring to add his skills to Glee as a dancer. Oh well, worst comes to worst, he'd give the solo to Rachel. She was more than a little disgruntled about not being given a starring role, anyway.

The next day, as the Glee club gathered in the choir room to rehearse, Will couldn't help the excitement that coiled in his stomach. This assignment, this musical, was huge as far as social influence goes. And certainly, the students would have looked up their roles online to learn the character they would be playing and their mannerisms.

What he certainly didn't expect, however, was the flood of questions that he was bombarded with.

"A _stripper_, Mr. Shue? I'm a _stripper_?"

"Dude, this guy has the virus?"

"Lady kisses," (this one was from Brittany).

"Guys!" Will called, trying to corral the noise. It worked mildly, the noise quieted slightly.

"Guys, this play has huge social influence. It occurred when AIDS was rampant and had a permanent stigma attached to it. That's one of the main reasons it was so popular. Quinn, your character's...profession, is not mentioned in this particular song, nor is 'the virus', Puck. Let's give it a shot."

Puck led the group down to the auditorium, and Will arranged the lighting as the students set themselves up. When they were all ready, Will settled himself in the chair to listen.

"_Five hundred, twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes..."_

_-(RENT)-_

A week later, correction after correction, rehearsal after rehearsal, Will was finally satisfied with the club's performance. It had definitely not been an easy ride. Quinn and Puck's energy was perpetually low, with baby Beth at home, Rachel was telling anyone who would listen what a better Mimi she would have made, and Finn was...somehow just not fitting into the role of Mark.

Still, after a week of rehearsing Seasons of Love, the club had successfully learned the song and choreography for La Vie Boheme, and Will had absolute faith that it would be spectacular. So much so, in fact, that he barely noticed when another spectator came in and sat quietly in a chair near the back.

Lights suddenly flooded the auditorium and the Glee club took their positions.

"_Bohemia is dead..."_

_-(RENT)-_

Will clapped as hard as he could as his students finished. Their performance had, in his opinion, been amazing. He got up, ready to go congratulate them in person, when a very familiar voice stopped them.

"William, I'm going to be very honest, mostly because I really don't think I can morally lie to Tinkerbell the Fairy. That would be what you look like with that hairdo, by the way."

Will's shoulders slumped and he slowly turned to face Sue Sylvester.

"What do you want, Sue?"

"What do I want? My needs in life are fairly simple, Sandra-Dee-circa-end-of-Grease. Food, water, shelter, occasionally a good conquering-of-nations. _Oh, _and also, for your little glee clubbers to not butcher what is widely regarded as one of the most successful and socially aware musicals of the nineties."

Will furrowed his brow in confusion. "What are you talking about, Sue? My kids did an amazing job."

She chuckled, giving will the distinct impression of what a cat must have looked like before it chased a mouse in increasingly small circles.

"Come on, Sue. I challenge you to find a group that would do that better with less than a week of practice."

She grinned. "Oh, how you are going to regret those words, Will."


	2. Raging,Shifting Winds of Change

**A/N: Aannnnndd we land on chapter 2. Where is this going, you may ask me? I have no idea, I will answer. Still, it's a really fun fic to write so far. Enjoy, and for the love of god, REVIEW! Roger will go all angsty again if you don't. True story. What can I say, he depends on those reviews.**

Little got done in the way of new material in the time that followed. Other than deciding that they were branching out and doing more RENT, Will had just been waiting in tense anticipation of Sue for almost a week now. He had seen Sue in the hall several times, but she had never shown any indication that revenge was at hand. He was beginning to think she wouldn't even bother.

That is, until she ordered him to call the club to the auditorium on a Tuesday afternoon, giving him no other clues as to what she was planning besides "have them ready to...perform, or whatever it is they do."

He was honestly not sure what to expect, but it certainly wasn't Sue walking in with a crowd of eight people that looked vaguely familiar. They made their way to the front, and sat down on the stage. A very made-up woman and a man with a white knitted cap immediately fell into seats side by side, as did an African-American woman and another woman with long, dark hair. A blond man clutching a camera sat on his own, beside another man with long blond hair, holding a young Hispanic woman on his lap. Will searched for their names in his mind, and it came to him just as Sue began her introductions.

"Glee clubbers. I hear you are pathetically attempting to cover _Rent_ this week. Thought I'd lend a hand and help out. You may recognize these fine people in front of you, but seeing as how you are teenagers, and therefore _wildly_ uncultured, I'll let them make their own introductions."

The man with the cap waved. "Tom Collins, how's it going guys?"

"Pussy Galore, in person," the made up woman giggled, before sobering and introducing herself as Angel.

"Mark Cohen."

"Joanne Jefferson and Maureen Johnson."

"I'm Mimi Marquez. This is my boyfriend, Roger Davis."

The man lifted a hand in greeting, wrapping the other around Mimi's waist.

They seemed to be a perfectly normal bunch even if they were dressed a bit oddly for a school presentation. Roger was dressed in jeans with a chain hanging off the pocket and a leather jacket, and Mimi wore a tightly fitting black shirt, a multi-coloured miniskirt and fishnet stockings.

Will walked up to Sue.

"Sue, what is this?"

"What's the matter, William, is your hair product seeping in and destroying what I can only guess is the remnants of the spider webs that once passed for a brain?"

Will rolled his eyes. "Who are these people?"

Sue mock-dropped her jaw at him. "These, my dear William, are who your Glee clubbers are pathetically trying to emulate. These are the originals."

"The originals?"

"Did you not _hear _their introductions?"

Will's brow furrowed...they couldn't be...these were _the_ people the kids were playing?

Sue's smug smile spoke for itself, and Will had to turn away, his head spinning. The kids were confused also. Sue was looking more and more pleased every minute, while the guests just looked uncomfortable.

Silence reigned for several minutes, until the blond man, Mark, finally spoke up.

"Soo...are we doing this or not?"

Will cleared his throat awkwardly. "Sorry, but we're all still a little confused. Who are you guys, first of all, and what are you here to do?"

Angel leaned in and whispered in Collins' ear, and they both giggled.

"I mean," Will continued. "Are you guys actually _the_ characters the kids are playing?"

More giggling from Angel and Collins. "Not so much characters honey. Those songs are our lives. And to answer your other question, we're just here to play a little music and make sure your guys know what to do with these songs."

"Hold it," called Puck. "So that guy is the _actual_ Roger Davis?"

Will's head was spinning as he gave a brief nod to Puck.

"And he actually has..."

"What, HIV?" Roger grinned. "Yep, that's me right here. Every day, one step closer on the road to AIDS."

Questions raced through Will's head. _These people were the actual...how did Sue find...how did she convince them to come...when...why..._

Finally, Will could take it no more. The situation needed to be simplified.

"You guys are here to show the kids some of your songs?"

Mimi snorted. "Those aren't kids. When I was sixteen I had already dropped out, moved to New York and started at the Cat Scratch."

"Mayybbbee not the best place to mention that, Meem." Joanne cut in, among the various sniggers around the room.

Will sighed. Not exactly inspiration to stay in school. "So do you guys want us to perform first, or you?"

Collins leaned back in his seat. "We're here to help you guys. Show us what you got first. What's the first song you guys are doing?"

This, as Rachel saw it, was clearly her opportunity to cut in. "First, we've chosen the rock-based opening number, _Rent_, as a precursor to the rest of the musical's songs regarding financial woe and medical uncertainty."

The guests chuckled at her eagerness, and Maureen laid her hand on Rachel's shoulder. "We lived it, honey. We know it."

Face reddening slightly, Rachel sat back down. Finn squeezed her hand reassuringly.

"Alright, our first song, _Rent_. Puck, Finn, get up here, you guys are Mark and Roger. The rest of you are the people of tent city. Get up here, let's do it!"

The glee club jumped up, and Finn and Puck ran to the forefront. The rock beat started, and Finn obligingly began spinning around, pointing the faux-camera at various pieces of scenery.

(Out of the corner of his eye, Roger noticed Mark clutching his camera a little closer, and smacked him on the arm)

_How do you document real life_

_When real life's getting more like fiction each day_

_Headlines, breadlines blow my mind_

_And now this deadline, eviction or pay_

_Rent!_

On the song went, with the bohemians scrutinizing the teens. Will had decided that since they could clearly not use real fire to drop, they would just have to settle on red pieces of paper.

_How do you stay on your feet _

_When on every street, it's trick or treat_

_And tonight, it's trick _

(As it turned out, Matt was a decent singer, although he seemed at a loss to deal with the fake blood they had smeared on him, and was more than a little uncomfortable with singing songs with Kurt)

Throughout the song, the boys narrated, running around the room and throwing papers in the fake fire. Some of them actually hit Mike, who was playing Benny, after Artie had said that for once, he'd rather be in the chorus and Tina, in a show of solidarity, had agreed to be one of Mimi's...backup dancers.

_Draw a line in the sand _

_And then make a stand_

Mike's singing voice had come a long way since his dancing days, and Will could now say with confidence, he was worthy of moving up from the chorus.

So wrapped up in the number, Will barely noticed when the music drew to a close, and Finn and Puck sat down on the stage, panting.

The bohemians, who had been watching the number closely, applauded loudly, eliciting grins from the boys.

"Thoughts?" called Mercedes, who, much to her chagrin, had not gotten a part, but Will had promised her and Tina the female leads in every chorus.

Biting his lip, Mark looked at Roger, who nodded back at him. Roger disentangled Mimi from his lap and he and Mark went up and sat on the stage, Collins joining them as an afterthought.

"Really kickass, guys." Roger stated. "The fact that you guys can do that in high school is really cool."

The boys' faced dropped a little. "But..." Finn probed.

Mark looked at Collins. "But...how do I put this...where's the fire?"

Finn's brow furrowed. "Dude, we couldn't use real fire. Mr. Shue said we'd, like, burn down the auditorium."

Roger and Collins stifled chuckles.

"No, I mean...where's the passion in what you're singing about? Think about it, man...we're dirt poor, we literally don't have two pennies, forget about rubbing them together, and this guy we thought was one of us is going to kick us out to live on the street."

"Yeah, you guys sounded like you were telling us a story, which is great, but it needs to be more than that. This is our whole life. We've been getting eviction notices for years, but now Benny –" Roger stopped to glare at Benny here – "is going to wipe out the entire tent city."

Puck cleared his throat. "So we should..." 

"Try it with some passion." Collins looked around the room and signalled to the band.

"Like this."

The music started again, only this time, Roger, Collins and Mark jumped onto the stage.

As the music pounded, Roger and Mark circled around each other, arms thrown up in defiance, shouting out the lyrics. When Benny sang his part, they circled down and sneered at him.

Roger picked up an empty garbage can lying around the stage, and each picked a random piece of paper.

_The music ignites the night_

_With passionate fire _Mark complimented Roger, throwing the paper headlong into the garbage.

Roger nodded graciously, looking down at his paper/

_The narration sparkles and pops_

_With incendiary wit_ he responded, his paper too tossed in the fire.

The glee club watched in fascination as the bohemians continued. By the end of the song, they were shouting at Benny in rage, their faces contorted as they gave all they had to the music.

By the time they were done, the men were panting as well, but flopped down in their seats with smiles on their faces.

"Kind of like that," Collins grinned.


End file.
